MIME-Version: 1.0
Server: CERN/3.0
Date: Monday, 25-Nov-96 00:18:01 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 5431
Last-Modified: Friday, 02-Aug-96 01:36:43 GMT

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN//2.0">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Help on Searching</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<I>NCSTRL Documentation</I>
<HR>
<H2>Help on Searching</H2>

You can search for a document with either a <!WA0><!WA0><!WA0><!WA0><A HREF="#simple">simple
search</A> or a <!WA1><!WA1><!WA1><!WA1><A HREF="#fielded">fielded search</A>.

<H3><A NAME="simple">Simple Search</A></H3>

Simple search consists of a single text entry box on the NCSTRL server
home page.  Enter keywords in this box <I>(e.g., "digital
library")</I> to search the author, title,
and abstract fields of the bibliographic entries for technical
reports.   The entire
NCSTRL collection is searched.  The search returns documents whose
bibliographic entries contain all the words you enter in either the
author, title, or abstract fields.  



<H3><A NAME="fielded">Fielded Search</A></H3>

The fielded search form has three logical components.  First, there
are three text entry fields for bibliographic keyword entry, and two
radio buttons to specify whether the keywords entered should be
"anded" or "ored" together.  Second, there is a menu of the publishers
in the NCSTRL collection, and a check box to use all publishers.
Finally, there is a text entry field in which you may specify a
document identifer.  
 <P>
To specify search criteria, do the following:
<OL>
<LI> If you wish to specify search criteria based on bibliographic
keywords (author, title or abstract), fill one of the keyword fields (see the <!WA2><!WA2><!WA2><!WA2><A HREF="#rules">rules
for bibliographic keyword matching</A>) :
<UL>
<LI><i>Author</I> - The author's first or last name or names .
<LI><i>Title</i> - The  words in the title of the document.
<LI><i>Abstract</i> - The words in the abstract of the document.
</UL>
and select the "AND" or "OR" radio button.
<LI> Select at least one
of the publishers from the list on the form, or select the
<i>checkbox</i> to search all publishers.  Unfortunately, each Web
browser has a different rule for multiple selections in a menu.
Consult the documentation for your browser for help with this.
<LI><i>Document Identifier</i> - The identifying "name" of the document,
unique for any given publisher.  Your entry will be matched against
any substring of the document identifiers; <i>e.g.,</i> the entry "94"
will match "94-1435" and "89-194".  A document identifier entry is
always "anded" to bibliographic keyword entries; <I>i.e.,</I> only
documents which meet the bibliographic keyword criteria and the
document name criteria will be returned.
</OL>
Please take note <b>that not all documents in the collection have 
abstracts</B>. 
If you want your search request to include documents without abstracts, 
enter your search criteria under <i>Title</i> as well as <i>Abstract</i>.
<br><br>
Your search criteria will be rejected if you don't select at least one
publisher (or the "all" checkbox), and specify at least one
bibliographic keyword or a document identifier. 


<h3> <A NAME="rules">Rules for bibliographic keyword matching</A></h3>

Words that you enter in the three bibliographic keyword fields
(<i>Author</i>, <i>Title</i>, <i>Abstract</i>) are matched to
bibliographic entries according to the following rules:
<ul>
<li>Each word that you enter matches any word in the respective field
that begins with respective word.  For example, the word "comp"
matches "computer", "computation", "comprehensive", etc.
<P>
<li>You may choose either the logical connector <tt>AND</tt> or
<tt>OR</tt> between the bibliographic keyword fields by using one of
the radio buttons below the fields.  For example, if you select the
<i>or</i> button and the word "robot" in the <i>Title</i> field and
"robotics" in the <i>Abstract</i> field, the search will return
documents that have either "robot" in their titles or "robotics" in
their abstracts.  If you select the <i>and</i> button, the search will
return only those documents that have "robot" in their titles and "robotics" in
their abstracts.
<P>
<li>You may also use logical connectors "and" and "or" within fields.
For example, if you enter "robotics or vision" in the <i>abstract</i> field,
the search will return documents that have the word "robotics" or
"vision" in their abstracts.  If you enter "robotics and vision" in the <i>abstract</i> field,
the search will return documents that have both the word "robotics" and
"vision" in their abstracts.  Multiple words that are not separated by
"and" are assumed to be "and" separated.  For example, if you enter
"computer vision" in the <i>abstract</i> field, the search will return
documents that have both the words "computer" and "vision" in their
abstracts.  Finally, you may use parentheses to group words.  For
example, if you enter "Gries or (Teitelbaum and Field)" in the
<i>author</i> field, the search will return documents authored by
"Gries" or by "Teitelbaum" and "Field".
</ul>
<b>Note:</b>  Do not use short, common words or single letters in the
bibliographic keyword fields (<i>e.g.,</i> "the", "a", "s").  You will
be asked to re-eenter your search if the keyword you enter matches too
many words in the database.

<P><!WA3><!WA3><!WA3><!WA3><A HREF="http://cs-tr.cs.cornell.edu/Dienst/htdocs/document_menu.html">
<!WA4><!WA4><!WA4><!WA4><IMG SRC="http://cs-tr.cs.cornell.edu/Dienst/htdocs/image_gif/back.xbm"> 
Up to Main Information Menu</A>
<HR>
<I><!WA5><!WA5><!WA5><!WA5><img align=left  src="http://cs-tr.cs.cornell.edu/Dienst/htdocs/image_gif/sm_ncstrl.gif">
<B>NCSTRL Documentation</B>
<BR> Any comments or questions? <BR>Contact us at <!WA6><!WA6><!WA6><!WA6><A 
HREF="mailto:help@ncstrl.org">help@ncstrl.org.</A> </I>

</BODY>
</HTML>
